Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have requested the state of California and Gov. Gavin Newsom not to release over 33,000 criminal illegal immigrants with ICE detainers back into the streets, ICE said in a Feb. 6 statement.

ICE detainers are requests to state, local, or federal law enforcement to notify ICE before releasing a removable immigrant. A detainer can also request that an immigrant be held for 48 more hours beyond their scheduled release date to allow DHS time to take custody. The request is sent to prisons and other confinement facilities.

California’s failure to honor ICE detainers has resulted in the release of 4,561 criminal illegal immigrants since Jan. 20, ICE said in its statement.

“There are currently 33,179 aliens in the custody of a California jurisdiction with active detainers. The crimes of these aliens include 399 homicides, 3,313 assaults, 3,171 burglaries, 1,011 robberies, 8,380 dangerous drugs offenses, 1,984 weapons offenses, and 1,293 sexual predatory offenses.”

Some of the illegal immigrants already released from California jails into communities include a Mexican national arrested for lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of age, a Chinese national arrested for sexual battery, a Mexican national who has been arrested for a sex offender violation, and a Guatemalan convicted of first-degree murder.

DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin accused Newsom and other “sanctuary politicians” in the state of putting American lives at risk by releasing criminals into neighborhoods.

“Criminal illegal aliens should not be released from jails back onto our streets to terrorize more innocent Americans. If we work together, we can make America safe again. 7 of the 10 safest cities in the U.S. cooperate with ICE law enforcement,” McLaughlin said.

Newsom has defended California’s sanctuary policies. California’s Senate Bill 54 prohibits state and local law enforcement from using their money or personnel to investigate, detain, or arrest people for immigration enforcement purposes, the governor told conservative commentator Ben Shapiro in a Jan. 16 podcast.

However, California cooperates with federal immigration enforcement under certain circumstances, Newsom said.

“We have over 10,000 that I’ve cooperated with since I’ve been governor of California,” he said. “California has cooperated with more ICE transfers probably than any other state in the country. And I vetoed multiple pieces of legislation that have come from my legislature to stop the ability for the state of California to do that.”

ICE acting Director Todd Lyons sent a letter to California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Feb. 4 regarding the arrest of immigrants in their homes in the state. The letter focused on administrative warrants used by ICE to arrest aliens.

Administrative warrants, also known as ICE warrants, allow immigration officers to arrest and detain a foreign national. Unlike judicial warrants issued in criminal cases, administrative warrants do not require a neutral magistrate. Instead, an officer must establish probable cause to believe the illegal immigrant is removable from the United States.

A 2024 ruling from a California district court held that entering the land surrounding a home to arrest the occupant violated the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act.

In the letter, Lyons highlighted a 2007 judgment from the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit that supported the use of administrative warrants to arrest “aliens with final orders of removal in their place of residence.”

“An alien subject to a final order of removal has a diminished reasonable expectation of privacy when federal officers arrive with a valid administrative warrant and reasonable cause to believe he or she is in a residence,” the ICE acting director wrote.

Lyons highlighted that an alien with a final order for removal has generally undergone proceedings in which an immigration judge has determined that the individual is removable from the United States. This neutral immigration judge also ensures the foreign national receives all necessary protections under the U.S. Constitution.

As such, “ICE officers may enter an alien’s residence with a final order of removal and an administrative warrant. No community serious about keeping its residents safe will tolerate a clear aberration of the law,” Lyons wrote.

“ICE and the American people once again demand California honor ICE detainers to take the worst of the worst off the streets and make America safe again.”

The Epoch Times reached out to Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta for comment, but did not receive a response by publication time.